Also the statement "For your ship escaping another's pursuit, simply reverse these" doesn't seem to work in practice. For example, I would conceive the first level of evasion being "Your ship escaping, versus the enemy keeping pace" which really doesn't read as any kind of "reversal" of the first stage of pursuit.

3) The escalation for ship pursuit makes huge amounts of game mechanical sense, but unfortunately not much story sense. "Captain we're just not fast enough to get within cannon range of her"..."Ok, bring us up along side then". I fully embrace the idea of escalating from long range "safe" cannon fire, to the carnage of broadsides and then to the brutality of boarding...but from a story narrative perspective it seems rather off.

Is the "I'm attacked, attacker is losing and escalates, he's still losing and escalates, he escalates once more, winning, and I'm dead" issue resolved in the final product?

Well, resolved in the sense that yes, that's how the rules work. You can get killed in a fight through no effort or choice of your own. Every fight might get out of hand, and fights are most dangerous when you're winning but you haven't yet won. This is true whether you started the fight or not.

If someone attacks you, mechanically you can always endure duress instead of fighting back, so you do have that much choice. However, I'm not promising that enduring duress will always be a choice you can stand to make. Furthermore, you don't get to go back and do-overs if a fight goes poorly for you against your expectations, so if you're like "if I'd known I was going to die, I'd've endured duress instead!" that's too bad for you.

If someone attacks you, mechanically you can always endure duress instead of fighting back, so you do have that much choice.

Aha! I got from some advice of yours that enduring duress was just a way of gaining X-es for the person attacked before the fight begins, not something you can avoid the fight with. Thanks for elaborating on that! =)

Well, do realize that enduring duress instead of fighting back is also going to get you killed. "I blow your brains out through the back of your skull." "I endure duress." That's a deadly wound, make a bargain or die.

Nope. Your attacker names the attack. If it's deadly, and you decide to endure it, you've taken a deadly wound. "I stab you between the ribs. / I cut your throat from behind. / I loop the rope twice around your neck and hoist you to the arm. / I smash your skull open with a belaying pin, and I don't stop until I see your pretty pink brains." "I endure duress." Deadly woundsville.

Those named 1st-level consequences are for when you DON'T endure duress, but instead DO fight back, and lose, and decide to accept your loss and not escalate. "I loop the rope twice around your neck and hoist you to the arm." "The hell you do! I fight back!" Now it's a fight, and the rules for fighting apply.